Surco OSI DBR-300, 3 Bike Swing away Rack

[RedneckExpress]

New Swing-away Bike Rack for behind the Camper

Well, for the last few trips where I’ve brought along bikes with me,  I’ve used my trusty old el-cheapo Harbor Freight swing down bike rack.

It’s  served well, held up decently through some abuse, but it was a pain in  the butt to tip down and lift back up (trying to hold two heavy bikes up  and push a pin thorough a hole at the same time is in no way what I’d  call “Fun”) and required running a long length of chain through the  bikes and then through the hitch extension to lock them in place. 

So, I finally decided to invest some money into a new swing-away style bike rack that also locks the bikes in place.

I started up a few threads on various RV forums to get a feel for what was commonly used and the price range for most of them. 
 
I just about had a heart attack after looking up the Thule and Yakima racks at nearly $500 apiece, ouch!

Then,  google came to my rescue, along with Amazon.com, and I located a Surco  OSI DBR-300 three bike swing-away style bike rack on Amazon.com for $225  + free shipping!
 
The few complaints were minor, mostly dealing  with bolt threads binding from the bike rack being left constantly out  in the weather by the owner.  A simple fix for a handy many such as me  is to lather the threads with a little anti-seize and no rust up  problems to be had .
 
Bike rack ordered, I waited patiently for it to ship in.

Finally,  the happy day came and my box arrived, sadly mid-work week, so I had to  wait till the weekend before I could get a day with daylight in it  (it’s dark by the time I get home from work). 
   
  Assembly  was very easy, the only tool I needed was a crescent wrench to tighten  down the big bolt that secures the swing arm to the section that slides  into the receiver. 

 
 

And then putting the carriage bolts in place on the top pivot arm along with their springs and handles. 

 
   
[Video] Demonstrating the top Bike Pivot mechanism

  It’s just simply that easy. 

  I  gave everything that was going to be loosened and tightened frequently a  coating of anti-seize to protect it from the Oregon weather and I was  done.

 

The  bikes secure in place via a beefy top metal plate that is tightened  down via two screws.  The one with the big handle on it has a key that  can lock it so that the handle cannot be backed back off.

 

Something else I really liked

 
   
  Bike Rack in action

 
   
  [Video] Bike rack completely assembled and ready to go

Now, as you saw, on the truck, the swing away rack bumped the rear tire a little into the truck’s bumper. 

  With  the hitch extension in place, the bike rack will actually be roughly  12” behind the camper, giving the rack more than plenty of room to fully  pivot the bike 90 degrees without getting caught up on the camper  itself, giving me a straight path in and out of my door.

[Oz]

So, do you give this item a thumbs up?   Hm?

[RedneckExpress]

Doth be fixed .  Thanks for pointing that out to me, I never noticed the little message icon feature before.

[Oz]

Excelletnt evaluation!  Very descriptive and complete.